Jourdain said the Ojibwe broadcasts for the Wild and Rock Ridge schools are a dream come true, because they allow him to combine his passion for hockey with his love of native language and give him the opportunity to show off his play-by-play calling skills.
“I learned that from the people that I listened to on ‘Hockey Night Canada,’ living so close to the border,” he said. “Danny Gallivan, Dave Hodge and all those people in ‘Hockey Night in Canada.’ They made it so exciting. Back then, all we had was a radio. We didn’t have a television, so that was the only way we listened to hockey, through a little battery-operated radio. We didn’t have electricity there.”
Meredith Two Crow, president of the Rock Ridge American Indian Parent Advisory Committee (AIPAC), said she hopes Tuesday’s game and a Native American Hockey Night on Jan. 30 featuring Rock Ridge High’s boys varsity team, coached by retired NHL defenseman Matt Niskane, against Grand Rapids will encourage youth to learn Ojibwe and to explore Indigenous culture.
“We are just so grateful that we could even get the speakers that were at the Minnesota Wild game here in our small community, in our home rink,” Two Crow said. “I just think it’s so phenomenal. We are in a very remote community up here on the Iron Range, and I just really hope that this is able to just open other kids’ eyes. There’s such a stigma with being Indigenous and I’m hoping to bridge that gap.”
The Native American Hockey Nights were made possible through a Minnesota Department of Education Native Language Revitalization Grant.